My fiddle exploded.

Subject: My fiddle exploded.
From: Kim C
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 09:07 AM

I was just sitting there practicing, minding my own bidness, when all of a sudden, POP. The tailcord went POOF. It's been on there for who knows how long and one of the knots just snapped. I still have all the parts and both my eyeballs, so I reckon it's plenty salvageable.

So, yay for me, I get to put a fiddle back together. Never a dull moment around here. Now, I know how the tailgut is supposed to go together with the tailpiece, I've just never had to replace one before. Any helpful hints are gratefully welcomed. :-)

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: Deckman
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 09:10 AM

Take up the bagpipe? bad bad bob

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: Kim C
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 09:23 AM

Heh. Don't tempt me. ;-)

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: Bert
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 09:25 AM

A nail maybe?

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: beardedbruce
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 09:45 AM

With a gut/cord, tie a knot in one end. Put the cord through one hole in the base of the tailpiece, loop around the endpin, and put the cord back through the other hole at the end of the tailpiece. Tie a knot in that end.

Easier if you test fit it, remove the tailpiece after determining where the knot should be, and giving yourself some slack to work with. The end of the tailpiece should be about over the saddle- the critical distance is the "after length" of the strings , between the bridge and the tailpiece. Changing this WILL change the tone of your instrument.


Modern 'nylon" tail guts are threaded, but the principle is the same.

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: Kim C
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 09:48 AM

Thanks Bruce. That's kinda what I figured - it's not too unlike placing knots in jewelry-making. I still have the busted tailgut to give me an idea of how long it should be. :-)

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: Bonnie Shaljean
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 09:56 AM

Take up the harp - you'll have all sorts of busted gut things popping!

Surely a nylon or carbon-fibre tail cord will be less likely to break (I don't play fiddle) (well, actually I did a few times... you don't want to know…). That's certainly true for harp strings, though nothing sounds as good as gut in the upper registers. Or costs as much. Or goes out of tune with every variation in humidity/temperature as easily.

I'm glad you didn't suffer any physical injuries in the line of duty. I always avert my face when winding on my heavy (metal-wound) bass strings, which make the guy wires on the Titanic seem slender.

Just thought I'd cheer you up ;-)

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: Rapparee
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 10:01 AM

Take up the trumpet, like God intended.

Who ever heard of "The Last Fiddle" or Joshua bringing down the walls of Jericho with a piccolo?

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: Kim C
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 10:10 AM

Bonnie, it *was* a nylon tailcord. But I've had the fiddle for 15 years, and got it used, so there's no telling how long it was on there. It popped right at one of the knots, which kinda makes sense, I suppose.

The irony here is, till I get it repaired, my only working backup is my all gut-string fiddle I use for historical performances. WHEE. ;-)

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: GUEST
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 12:56 PM

At my front door, I was carrying in the upright bass after a gig and bumped the extendible peg on the bottom against the threshold. The neck popped off the body with an impressive POW!

Another time, my band mate brushed against his fiddle on its stand after a gig, broke the scroll off his favorite.

Sh*t happens, you have my sympathies.

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: Will Fly
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 01:28 PM

Reminds me of very first - and cheapest - guitar. I bought it for £5 in 1964, got it home, tuned it up and - BANG! - the tailpiece broke and all the strings flew past my nose.

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: gnu
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 01:43 PM

Well, thank goodness no injuries were had by any of youse.

I always wondered about snapping, especially on a fiddle. I have seen one particular fiddler snap a string twice in concert. He goes thru fiddle bow hair at an astonishing rate and I heard he packs a bunch of bows in his kit. He always has strange looking glasses on and I can surmise one good reason... they may be simply safety glasses!

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: gnu
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 01:50 PM

Here is he without glasses! Maybe that is why his eyes are closed to tightly. >;-)

http://www.theobserver.ca/2013/03/02/tickets-now-on-sale

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: Leadfingers
Date: 02 Jul 13 - 02:49 PM

The BANG when a Full Size double bass bridge falls over in the middle of a dance has to be heard to be believed .

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: banjoman
Date: 03 Jul 13 - 06:58 AM

Had a similar experience with an American Civil War era fretless banjo which had a cord to tie the tail piece on. It broke with a loud pop and left a bunch of nylgut strings wrapped around the neck. Replaced it with Parachute Cord which has a breaking strain of several tons and which I have towed a car with.
All grist to the mill

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: Kim C
Date: 03 Jul 13 - 10:23 AM

Well, y'all, I went to get my gut-string fiddle out of the case and found the E had popped.

Luckily, I did have a spare. :-)

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: GUEST,SJL
Date: 03 Jul 13 - 10:50 AM

Were you playing The Cruel Mother on your fiddle? Cuz I heard that if you play The Cruel Mother on a fiddle, it may explode. So don't ever do that.

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: GUEST,Fantum
Date: 03 Jul 13 - 08:37 PM

A fiddle is the cats revenge on humans

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: Don Firth
Date: 03 Jul 13 - 11:17 PM

Not quite the same, but a friend of mine was sitting in her living room one afternoon when she heard a gawdawful sound upstairs. It sounded like someone stomped on an apple crate while dropping a piano from a considerable height.

She dashed upstairs to find that her very nice Goya classic guitar, which she'd had left lying on the bed, had spontaneously exploded! She'd had the guitar for some forty years and it accompanied her singing for years of performing in coffee houses, hundreds of concerts and other performances, and on several television shows.

What with the bent sides and all, guitars are assembled under tension and held in place by forms until the glue dries. Apparently, for some reason, the glue had simply let go! It was a warm summer afternoon, but not unusually so, and the sun had not been shining on the guitar.

Not a common thing. There are old guitars, vintage or antiques hundreds of years old and usually in museums, that are still intact and show no signs of self-disassembly.

My friend took the guitar to Sound Guitar Repair and the woman luthier there rebuilt it as good as new—or better.

Once I learned she was there, I've had Cat (Catherine) Fox work on a couple of guitars for me. She repaired a couple of cracks in the back of a classic guitar and adjusted the action on one of my travel guitars.

Our local miracle worker:   Cat Fox.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: My fiddle exploded.
From: Kim C
Date: 05 Jul 13 - 09:31 AM

I've had people tell me their fiddles have come unglued from the heat, or else they dried out and the wood shrunk. Who knows.

Damn persnickety instruments.